The Opium War | Julia Lovell | Picador

In a war between two countries, usually it is the victorious countries' versions of the war that gets promulgated.

For the two wars fought during the later days of the Manchurian empire, it is however the Chinese narrative that had become dominant with the emphasis on the Opium Wars being the start of the hundred years of humiliation for the Chinese.  And the Manchurian emperor who ruled during the first Opium War is often described in Chinese as 昏庸的道光皇帝 (the inept Emperor Daoguang).

Julia Lovell's The Opium War however, does not completely pin the blame of the Manchurian losses solely on the Manchurian Emperor, instead recognizing that the Emperor might mostly have been fed half-truths or even complete lies by his subjects.  This actually makes the Chinese saying 山高皇帝远 (the mountains are high and the emperor far away) a lot of sense.  If the Manchurian Emperor himself was unable to know the truth of something happening in his own empire, perhaps Queen Victoria experienced the same, with London being so much further away from Canton compared to Peking.

In all fairness, Emperor Daoguang might have been a flawed emperor, yet to not recognize the roles that the English and Chinese traders and Manchurian officials played in the trade deficit fiasco that eventually morphed into a war in which one empire did not even realise was incoming would make the two Opium Wars a very expensive missed lesson.

Vögel 3

Fälle für den Kommissar | Hertbert Reinecker | Easy Readers

Fälle für den Kommissar, geschrieben von Hertbert Reinecker und veröffentlicht vom Verlag Easy Readers, enthält zwei kurze Kriminalgeschichten.

In der ersten Geschichte stirbt ein Mann plötzlich in einem Taxi, während in der zweiten Geschichte eine Frau ermordet wird.

Anfangs fand ich die beiden Geschichten schwer verständlich und musste sie ein zweites Mal lesen.

Ich denke, ich habe es geschafft, die meisten der beiden Geschichten zu verstehen, und fand es interessant, wie der Kommissar die Fälle gelöst hat

Vögel 2

[LEGO] Botanicals Chrysanthemum 10368

The Han-Xiongnu War | Scott Forbes Crawford | Pen and Sword Military

The author had chosen the Mandarin pronunciation for the two groups of people who were at war with each other centuries ago.  Which on initial thought is a little strange, because if one were to be able to time-travel to those times then, I highly suspect that these people might not even recognize the pronunciation by which they were called by centuries later.

I had rather high hopes for this book, hoping to learn a little more about this mysterious group of people who had once upon a time given the Han people quite a lot of grief and then seemingly faded away into history.

Did they had some form of written language which could have been passed down?  Because practically all that is postulated (or known of them) came from Han sources.  Even the name by which they are now known as 'Xiongnu' was what the Han called them, and perhaps that might not even be what they call themselves in their language(s).

I suppose unless some archaeological breakthrough comes about, all that we know about the 'Xiongnu' are only from Han sources.

[Ultraman Suit] Jack Action Unboxing

[LEGO] Botanicals Chrysanthemum 10368 Unboxing

 

The Rivalry Peril | Van Jackson and Michael Brenes | Yale University Press

Ich frage mich, ob der Rest der Welt (abgesehen von den beiden im Buchtitel genannten Ländern) inzwischen stillschweigend zu der Auffassung gelangt ist, dass es womöglich dringendere, wichtigere oder entscheidendere Probleme gibt, die sie oder ihre Länder betreffen, als den in diesem Buch beschriebenen „Wettbewerb der Großmächte“.

Wie dem auch sei: Ich hoffe im Sinne der Autoren, dass ihre Einschätzung zutrifft, wonach China nicht die Welt beherrschen will – so wie es ihrer Ansicht nach Amerika tut. Denn das Gegenteil davon könnte für manche Länder nur schwer zu ertragen sein.

Ich frage mich durchaus, wie die Autoren zu dieser Einschätzung gelangt sind. Sie schien im Buch nicht näher erläutert worden zu sein, sondern wirkte schlicht wie die Feststellung einer Tatsache.

Secret Cat Forest - Living Room